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libraryresources · 6 years

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Wikispaces: Youth Services Librarianship - Community Outreach

[By the time you see this, Wikispaces will have shut down due to financial troubles. This transcription (July 2018) is my attempt to preserve professional knowledge for the youth library field, until such a time that a new, updated resource becomes available! c: ]

What do we mean by Community Outreach?

Community outreach often refers to bringing unique library services to underserved groups, in untraditional settings outside the library. However, the language of community outreach can be imprecise. The term sometimes refers to programs and services specifically tailored for targeted populations, but offered inside the library building or through the Internet. Community outreach may focus on youth who are disabled, home-schooled, immigrants, minorities, incarcerated, pregnant or parenting, GLBTQ, and others who are not willing or able to come into the library for various reasons. Community outreach is closely linked with marketing (Pfeil, 2005), but it goes beyond making youth and their families aware of the library, to establishing community partnerships and delivering services as well. Barco listed "connecting, delivering, partnering, collaborating, teaming up, joining forces, fostering engagement" as synonyms of community outreach (Smallwood, 2010, vii).

Why community outreach is of interest to libraries?

According to the Library Bill of Rights, "...books and other library resources should be provided for the interest, information and enlightenment of all people of the community the library serves" (American Library Association, 2011, Library Bill of Rights). Especially as the population becomes more diverse, community outreach offers a way for public libraries to be more inclusive in serving all the people who live in the community. While the particular populations targeted through community outreach may sometimes be small, the individuals in these groups may have the most pressing needs, and the potential to benefit the most from library services. Community outreach also creates new library users, who pass the word onto their friends and families about library services.

History of Community Outreach in Libraries

Mobile services

Librarians have long been concerned with offering services to those not able or willing to come to the library. In 1893, Melvil Dewy developed traveling collections, consisting of boxes of books taken to schools (Bashaw, 2010). Children's librarians visited not only schools but also settlement houses (Osborne, 2004). By 1899, there were more than 2,500 traveling collections delivered to rural residents in the United States (Bashaw, 2010). In 1905, the Washington County Free Library in Hagerstown, Maryland created a horse-drawn book wagon, and within the first six months, delivered over 1,000 volumes to rural residents.

With the invention of the automobile came the bookmobile. According to the ALA's webpage on Services to Bookmobile Communities, "bookmobiles have served rural, urban, suburban and tribal areas, bringing access to information and life-long learning resources to all classes and communities" for over 100 years (American Library Association, 2011, Services to Bookmobile Communities). The number of bookmobiles has decreased from approximately 2,000 in the 1970's to around 732 in 2006, with rising fuel costs being one of the issues (Bashaw, 2010). However, bookmobiles remain a key method of outreach to youth and other populations, not only to rural areas, but also day care centers, summer camps, schools, mobile home parks, housing developments, and other locations .

Today, libraries like the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County are updating the notion of mobile services with "cybermobiles" equipped with laptops and Internet access (Hyatt & Craig, 2009). By focusing on community needs, the library determined that a mobile internet cafe was one way that they could help bridge the digital divide. Through the cybermobile, children play online games and teens update their social networking profiles, while adults register children for school, check email and search for jobs. While outreach staff conduct instructional sessions, rather than one-way teaching, they encourage an exchange of ideas with patrons, as they create, collaborate, and share their work online.

youtube

Time-lapse of youth visiting a cybermobile for Logan City Libraries in Australia.

Current Trends and Examples of Innovative Outreach Programs

In addition to the mobile internet cafe described above, there are many other different ways in which libraries are reaching out to various groups of children, youth, and their families, several of which are described below. This is not meant to be an exhaustive list, but to help identify some considerations and ideas as you develop a program that is specifically tailored for your community.

Community Outreach to teens

Successful outreach to teens follows one simple rule: go where the teens are, whether that be in schools, community groups, or even online. Outreach efforts do not need to be monumental tasks. Although there are large scale outreach programs, booktalks, housing library materials in classrooms for teen students, conducting writing or other skill training workshops, manning a table at a fair or farmers' market, talking at community meetings, or holding a book group at a location outside the library are all current modes of teen outreach. One interesting view of outreach includes any online service to teenagers, like online homework help, ask-a-librarian, or blogs, because it connects the library to teens wherever they are outside the library (Gorman & Suellentrop, 2009).

Going where teens are can also mean going with their interests and abilities. At the Vanderburgh Public Library in Evansville, Indiana the youth librarian reached out to a student who had a strong interest in anime and manga. By supporting his leadership, a small group of ten grew to fifty youth meeting every other week. Over time, all students, from those taking advanced placement classes to high school dropouts, "were able to find common ground and a place of acceptance" (Smallwood, 2010, p.59), resulting in a variety of programs designed and led by teens.

Community Outreach to ethnic/minority youth and families

In order to reach ethnic/minority youth and their families, libraries need to cultivate relationships with local nonprofit organizations, churches, and others who serve or are part of those populations. One of the challenges of serving different immigrant populations is that they may come from countries where free libraries are not part of the culture (Block, 2007). For undocumented immigrants, they may even be wary of libraries as government institutions. According to Avila (2008) one of the main factors for successful outreach is to "just show up," participating in community fairs and events "on their own turf...within their social networks." Another strategy is to put information about the library in ethnic media. Library branch managers in Queens, New York keep an eye out for restaurants, grocery stores, businesses, and newspapers which provide signs of new populations (Block, 2007).

In Burlington, Vermont where over thirty languages are spoken in the schools, the Fletcher Free Library brought together teenagers and parents to share their immigration and assimilation experiences, as part of a book discussion series called The Long Journey. The goals of this outreach program were to improve cultural understanding, build friendships across ethnicities, and to facilitate dialogue between first generation parents and their children (Smallwood, 2010).

(see more in Non-Native Speakers of English) [Transcriber note: Link to transcribed page will be added after posting.]

Community Outreach to incarcerated youth and children of incarcerated adults

Libraries have a history of specific outreach activities with incarcerated youth. These include populating the correction center library or staffing it, and offering the same types of programs that a library would hold in a traditional school setting such as booktalks or discussion groups. However, librarians working within a detention center may need to modify their materials, topics, or activities in order to comply with security measures and other institutional rules. For instance, pens, pencils with metal bands around the erasers, spiral notebooks, and hardback books may be prohibited. In addition, detention center administrators may put certain topics off limits, such as race, gangs, sex, drugs, and violence. The key to successful outreach programs with incarcerated youths is to develop strong relationships with not just the youth but also with the facility's corrections officers and director. The stronger the relationship, the more access librarians generally get to the youth.

In an effort to help youth offenders become more successful whenever they were released from the detention center, the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County helped teens to address their lack of technology skills. Expanding beyond previous book club discussions, the youth learned keyboarding for resumes, created podcasts and videos, and played online Scrabble and other video games. The librarians have learned to develop one-session classes because of the high turnover of the group. They also realized that certificates of completion, are meaningful for participants who not used to receiving positive recognition (Craig, 2010).

The Enoch Pratt Free Library partnered with the Maryland Correctional Institution at Jessup to create reading opportunities between adult inmates and their children. The goals of the program were to help prisoners improve their reading skills, to facilitate positive parent-child interaction (which would help improve behaviors and academic performance at school for the children), and to encourage use of the public library by the children and their parents when they are released from prison. The library modified their summer reading game and provided a rotating deposit of children's books. Many of the men had never read to their children, so the librarians modelled storytelling for them. None of the children had library cards, so applications were brought to the prison. The program was originally targeted for children ages eight and younger, but based on the potential benefits of positive parent-child interaction at any age, was expanded to include preteens and teens (Smallwood, 2010).

(See more in Incarcerated Youth) [TN: Link to be added after posting.]

Community Outreach to homeless families and youth

While libraries may be accustomed to homeless people spending time in their buildings, some have developed outreach programs to serve them more proactively. Families with children represent one of the fastest growing segments of the homeless population in the the United States, and around half of children experiencing homelessness are under the age of five (Terrile, 2009). Given the lack of stability in their lives, children who are homeless are at risk of behavioral problems and literacy deficits. In addition to families who are homeless, are teenage runaways and those who have recently been released from the foster care system. Because people who are homeless may lack transportation, libraries can teach computer classes and conduct story times at shelters and community agencies. They may need to modify requirements for a library card in order for patrons to take full advantage of library services.

In Portland, Oregon the Multnomah County Library provides reading materials to more than thirty shelters and transitional living programs, 60% of which include services for children and teens. Volunteers deliver and pick up books, and the partner agencies can distribute the materials in any way they consider appropriate. Residents can take books when they leave the shelter. While not specifically fa program or children, children's materials are a particular consideration in collection development for the program (Osborne, 2004).

Community Outreach to GLBTQ youth

GLBTQ youth have signficant information needs that change over time, depending on the stage of their coming out process (Mehra & Braquet, 2006). Given the social stigma of being lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgendered, and the bullying and harrassment that GLBTQ youth experience, they are at a greater risk of suicide than youth in general. According to Mehra and Braquet, libraries have the opportunity to play a "meaningful role" (p.2) in the lives of GLBTQ youth, and need to develop strategies to become identified as a safe haven.

In their "Queer Manifesto" Mehra and Braquet (2006) outline a number of outreach opportunities--in the community, within the library building, and online, including:

developing "aggressive and proactie adverstising of sexuality-related events and resources" (p.10);

collaborating with schools to share information about sexuality;

offering library meeting rooms to the GLBTQ community, their friends, and families;

participating in safe-space programs;

co-sponsoring programs about GLBTQ issues with community organizations; and

listing the library/librarians as local resources with GLBTQ organizations.

(See more in GLBTQ Youth)

Community Outreach to pregnant and parenting teens

There are multiple national, state, and local programs dedicated to getting health materials and help to teenage parents. Libraries can partner with these programs so that along with health information, expecting or new teenage parents can receive materials about early literacy and what the library offers to help early literacy. It is also possible to partner with health clinics, hospitals, and daycare centers to begin teaching parents about the importance of early literacy. Some national literacy programs with which libraries can partner are "Born to Read," "Reach Out and Read," and "Raising a Reader."

As a result of an early childhood literacy outreach program working with pregnant and parenting teens, the youth librarian at the Vanderburgh Public Library in Evansville, Indiana discovered that 1) teen mothers' attitudes towards reading and their reading skills improved; 2) they visited the library to check out books for their babies; and 3) some of them went on to discover and enjoy young adult literature for themselves. While librarians treated participants as adults in their role as mothers, they also remembered that these parents were also teens who had their own personal interests (Smallwood, 2010).

Challenges of Community Outreach

The challenges of community outreach range from the philosophical and administrative to the very practical. As highlighted in Current Trends and Examples of Innovative Outreach Programs, there are many reasons, that people may feel alienated from the library or cannot access library services easily. Therefore, the "if we build it, they will come" mentality is naive and can be costly, if community outreach serviceds are developed without community input and consideration of the issues which may arise.

Philosophical issues: Osborne (2004) cautions that when outreach is defined [soley] by group differences, those groups can be further marginalized. Rather, she encourages libraries to focus community outreach on the underlying principle of equitable service delivery, and to integrate community outreach into core library activities, rather than treat it as "an extra" (p.5). Even when libraries can demonstrate postive outcomes from community outreach, "the presumption still remains in librarydom that outreach is not real library work, and thus many services and programs...may even be set up to fail because of lack of sound organizational commitment and support" (p.27).

Funding issues: Outreach services are often funded with soft money, such as time-limited grants awarded for a specific program or service. When the grant money goes away, so does the outreach. As Osborne observes, this demonstrates a lack of commitment and sends mixed messages to targeted groups, who are sought after and welcomed only as long as there is specific funding available to do so (p.28).

Partnership issues: As discussed in Factors for Success below, community outreach nearly always involves partnership with other organizations, which can create a number of challenges, including time-consuming meetings and different agendas among the partners. External organizations, which may have more direct relationships with groups targeted for outreach, have their own policies and procedures that the library must learn, navigate and comply with.

Practical issues: Because outreach calls for delivering services in new ways to new users, it can require specific staff training or different skills, special equipment, and incremental investment in the collection (Block, 2007). It can be challenging to convince staff to incorporate community outreach into their responsibilities if they already feel over-committed. There are situations when outreach may take them into neighborhoods, where violence threatens the safety of staff and participants (Diaz, 2009).

Factors for Success/Practical Advice

Organizational Commitment: Libraries need the commitment of directors and board members, in order to sustain community outreach beyond time-limited, grant-specific funding, and to integrate outreach into their overall service philosophy and daily activities. Outreach goals should be prioritized in strategic plans, based on assessment of both community needs and assets (Osborne, 2004). From there, outreach can be operationalized through the library's marketing activities, staff development, and ongoing evaluation processes. While community outreach has traditionally been the responsibility of a few staff, the need to develop more staff with outreach skills is growing, and libraries may determine that "outreach is part of everyone's job description" (p.112). Staff may need training to analyze the library from the community's perspective, communicate with a diverse customer base, and engage the community through partnerships (p.113).

Partnerships: Collaborations are the "cornerstone of outreach" (Smallwood, 2010, p.157), through which partners can "maximize the expertise and interests of staff members, share costs, attract a broader audience, and increase community awareness about each organization"(p.153). Librarians need to learn the names of schools and other organizations which provide services to youth, and then initiate meetings with representatives from those organizations to identify opportunities for partnership. Outreach specialist Roberta Reiss says, "In today's enviornment of limited resources, minimal staffing, and growing underserved populations, I prefer deep and far-reaching conversations with potential partners...discussion and collaboration with partners increases the probably of success" (Osborne, 2004, p. 102). Some important considerations for successful partnerships include:

While each organization may have different agendas, they must find a common goal to drive the partnership, with a commitment to kids remaining at the forefront as a guilding force.

Partnerships work best when each organization focuses on its own strengths. Partners need to clarify the roles of each organization, and how they overlap.

Libraries need to invest in building relationships with partner organizations, taking extra time to maintain current communication, offering flexibility to accommodate their needs and special requests related to schedules or procedures, and admitting to mistakes when they arise.

Given the complexity of partnerships, libraries need to be realistic about what can be accomplished within a given timeframe and with available resources.

(Smallwood, 2010)

Sustainability: While ideally the commitment to community outreach should be evidenced in the operational budget and integrated throughout the organization, it is likely that funding and staffing will always be of concern. Even though small grants may not seem worth the effort, Dinsmore observes that they can "offer a unique opportunity to build relationships, network, and advertise," potentially leading to larger projects and long-term support through monetary and other resources (Smallwood, 2010, p17).

Potential sources of support include:

Local businesses, which may also donate products and space

National retailers, such as Macy's and Target, which offer grants at the local level

State libraries

Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy

Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi

National Institute for Literacy

In addition to the above, volunteers can offer valuable resources of both money and time, whether delivering books for off-site book deposits, storytelling, tutoring or computer instruction. The most enthusiastic volunteers may include teenagers, themselves.

AmeriCorps VISTA workers can provide intensive one-year support to build a library's capacity for community outreach, through program development, grantwriting, awareness campaigns, volunteer recruitment, and other activities.

Building Trust and Credibility: The youth and families you are trying to reach may have previously been made to feel unwelcome at the library, be marginalized by society, and lack the literacy skills one would associate with using the library. They may feel threatened or suspicious of advances by the library to deliver services. As a result, your initial outreach efforts may be not be embraced enthusiastically. Rather than a one-time, or short-term program, libraries need to approach community outreach expecting to develop long-term relationships. In order to build the trust and credibility necessary for successful outreach, librarians can learn from the lessons of others:

"...in order to encourage children to come to the library, you must go where they are, honor where they come from, and understand what they love" (Diaz, 2009, p.38). Meeting youth "where they are" refers to both physical location--parks, community pools, recreation centers, schools, day care centers, grocery stores, churches-- as well as their interests and abilities. Diaz recognized that "because our young people come from different backgrounds and have differing needs and abilities, we had to prepare to serve them as individuals" (p.37).

"the most valuable connections are individuals and members of groups who serve as pathways to the heart of a particular segment of the community" (Osborne, 2004, p.3). By attending community meetings, you can make contacts that may lead to others.

Do not give up. "...your first visits may make you feel as if you are wasting your time. However the teens are often paying closer attention than you realize" (Smallwood, 2010, p53).

Avila (2008, p.48) captures these lessons and others in an eight-step process for outreach to Spanish-speakers, which offers good advice for community outreach, regardless of the target audience(brackets inserted):

O---Outreach feeds on outreach. The more outreach you do, the better you will become at it and the more people will come to value the library.

U---Understand the complexities of [Spanish-speakers]. The one-size-fits-all concept does not apply here. You must do some research if you want to reach people.

T---Time is of the essence. It usually takes about three years of constant involvement before you notice your hard work pay off. Don't give up before then.

R---Reach with urgency. Libraries cannot afford to wait. Act now as this generation and the following generation will dictate the success of this country.

E---Everyone is your customer. Make a concerted effort to familiarize people with your services and programs on their home turf. The customers will follow.

A---Attitude is of the utmost importance as a positive first impression will determine whether people feel put off or welcomed.

C---Care for the needs of [Spanish-speakers], even if they are not library-related. This means working toward creating public value within this segment by addressing their needs.

H---The Human factor needs to be in place. Remember that people enjoy talking and interacting. Take this element away and you are back to square one.

Online Resources

ALA Office for Literacy and Outreach Services (OLOS) http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/olos/index.cfm

According to the Mission Statement found on the ALA website: The Office for Literacy and Outreach Services (OLOS) serves the Association by identifying and promoting library services that support equitable access to the knowledge and information stored in our libraries. OLOS focuses attention on services that are inclusive of traditionally underserved populations, including new and non-readers, people geographically isolated, people with disabilities, rural and urban poor people, and people generally discriminated against based on race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, language and social class.

OLOS Blog - http://olos.ala.org/columns/

"Tips and tales from the field": Blogposts on a range of topics covering various underserved populations and literacy, including downloadable materials.

Print Resources

From Outreach to Equity: Innovative Models of Library Policy and Practice, Robin Osborne, Editor (2004).

Connecting young adults and libraries: A how-to-do-it manual, Michele Gorman and Tricia Suellentrop (2009).

New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers

Librarians As Community Partners: An Outreach Handbook, Carol Smallwood, Editor (2010).

References

American Library Association. (2011) Services to Bookmobile Communities. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/olos/bookmobiles.cfm on November 8, 2011.

American Library Association. (2011). Library Bill of Rights. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/index.cfm on November 15, 2011.

Avila, S. (2008). Crash course in serving Spanish-speakers. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited.

Bashaw, D. (2010). On the road again: Children & libraries. The Journal Of The Association For Library Service To Children, 8(1), 32-35.

Block, M. (2007). The thriving library: Successful strategies for challenging times. Medford, NJ: Information Today.

Craig, A. (2010). High impact partnership: Serving youth offenders. Young Adult Library Services, 9(1), 20-22.

Diaz, R. (2009). after school mobile literacy: serving youth in underserved neighborhoods. Teacher Librarian, 36(3), 37-38.

Gorman, M. & Suellentrop, T. (2009). Connecting young adults and libraries: a how-to-do-it manual. New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers.

Hyatt, J., & Craig, A. (2009). Adapt for outreach: Taking technology on the road. Computers In Libraries, 29(9), 35-39.

Mehra, B., & Braquet, D. (2006). A “queer” manifesto of interventions for libraries to “come out” of the closet! A study of “queer” youth experiences during the coming out process. LIBRES, 16(1), p. 1-29.

Osborne, R. (Ed.). (2004). From outreach to equity: Innovative models of library policy and practice. Chicago, IL: American Library Association.

Pfeil, A.B. (2005). Going places with youth outreach: Smart marketing strategies for your library. Chicago, IL: American Library Association.

Smallwood, C. (Ed.). (2010) Librarians as community partners: An outreach handbook. Chicago, IL: American Library Association.

[Tumblr transcriber: Camilla Y-B]

#wikispaces #library #librarian #library community #professional development #Youth Library Services

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myfinanceblog · 7 years

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New Post has been published on My Finance Blog

New Post has been published on http://princefinance.princefamily33.com/2017/10/10/great-advice-for-handling-your-personal-finances/

Great Advice For Handling Your Personal Finances

TIP! Keep informed of world events so you are on top of any changes to the global market. Americans mostly ignore news that is not focusing on the U.

Money matters play a large role in our sense of well-being. Many people have no problem keeping things organized, while others struggle with it. Anyone can learn how to properly handle their money with some education. In this article, you will find tips and advice for improving your financial future.

TIP! Don’t fall for the scam that an organization can guarantee you a clean credit report. A lot of credit repair organizations will make broad, general statements about what they can do for you to clean up your credit.

Knowing how to handle your finances will make you more successful. Protect your current assets and act to increase them. Carefully asses the risk of reinvesting profit to grow your net worth and see if it makes sense in terms of the return you want from your investment. Fixing a firm ratio between profit and reinvestment will help you keep a handle on your money.

TIP! If you need to buy more product than you need, a grocery store sale may not be so great. You will only save by stocking up on groceries if you eat everything before it spoils.

If this is the wrong time for you, you should not sell. If you are getting money from one stock more than another, let that one stay. If you have stocks in your portfolio that are not performing well, you may wish to change them up a bit.

TIP! Look for a bank that offers free checking accounts if you do not already have one. Possible options to consider are credit unions, online banks, and local community banks.

Many products out there have some kind of a warranty on them, and if something should go wrong with the product, it would tend to happen during the period of the warranty. Usually, extended warranties are of no use to you.

Less Money

TIP! The simplest way to keep your finances on track is to avoid the use of credit cards to begin with. Don’t take using your credit card lightly.

You personal financial health depends on keeping your debt under control. Some debt is unavoidable; however, if you can avoid those sources of debt that are problematic, like credit cards, you will save yourself headaches later. Borrowing less money translates into paying less money on surcharges and interest.

TIP! If someone is looking to buy something that cost a lot, they should ask for advice from the family. If the purchase can benefit everyone, such as a new television, one might be able to convince the family to pitch in and buy it.

It is important that you establish some structure to ensure the security of your financial future. A concrete plan can motivate and guide you, and ensure you work hard and spend money frugally.

TIP! To quickly lower your debt, pay off the accounts that carry the highest interest rates first. While you may personally prefer to pay all your debts at the same rate, zeroing in on those with high interest rates benefits you in the end.

Your car, as well as your home, are the two biggest purchases that you will make. A huge factor of your budget each month will be not only the payments, but the interest rates of these things. You can pay them off faster if you add an extra payment or put any of your tax refund toward it.

Health Insurance

TIP! Think about getting a flexible account. The money you set aside is deducted before taxes, so you save money.

Protect yourself financially with the best health insurance policy for you. It is inevitable that you will get sick some time or another. Because of this, you should be sure that your health insurance leaves you protective. If you don’t have insurance you will be looking at healthcare bills that could add up to thousands of dollars. Without insurance, this can be quite a burden.

TIP! There are many home improvement projects you can do yourself, so don’t pay the high prices charged by professionals. You can easily find the information you need through a local hardware store class, online tutorial or book from the library.

Making regular deposits to a savings account is important for your financial stability. With money in savings, you may be able to avoid getting loans, and will also be in a position to handle unusual expenses. Even if you cannot make a big contribution every month, you should still save up as much as possible.

TIP! Avoiding debt wherever possible is a simple and powerful guideline for keeping personal finances under control. It’s usually necessary to take out a loan for big-ticket, essential items, such as a car or a house.

Eating out less can save a ton of money over the course of a year. By buying the needed ingredients and cooking meals at home, one is going to learn to appreciate the effort that it takes to prepare a meal at home for oneself.

TIP! Keep a record of your spending habits. Once you have this record in hand, create and follow a budget that takes your spending needs into account.

In conclusion, it is crucial to keep finances in check. After you have read this, you should be better able to reach your goal! Managing your money will be much easier after reading the tips in this article.

#financial future #health insurance #less money

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luxus4me · 7 years

Link

Design your way http://j.mp/2fAFioL

You’d be surprised how many sites use maps APIs to generate the maps that you see when visiting their sites. It’s always easier to use a maps API.

Digital maps and automated mapping tools are constantly growing in popularity, and this trend doesn’t seem to go down any time soon.

With Google Maps API holding the leadership on this list, companies are competing harshly to become the best-of-breed, leading product in the industry.

This doesn’t come as a surprise, as maps are very informative, useful, interesting, and engaging, and there is no one who’d disapprove of them.

Map fans lately have no troubles enjoying both static and interactive maps on almost any app or website. The reason is that map data is now open to use by third-party developers and aficionados, and made flexible enough to blend in different data sets and to display a wide range of species and specie lists wherever in the world they are needed.

The Map of Life, for instance, is both useful and fun, and so is the Zombie Apocalypse Survival Map which actually locates hospitals, grocery stores, warehouses, and similar ‘danger zones’. Basically, the point is to make information maps accessible to all users in real-time, and from the comfort of their favorite websites and applications.

Let’s give a look to several popular maps APIs

Google Maps

The leader of interactive mapping is without doubt Google Maps, which also makes its API data publicly available for interested developers. Therefore, it is not surprising that most websites and apps nowadays with a simple JavaScript/Flash interface have these apps embedded on their interface.

Google Maps APIs work perfectly on desktop and mobile devices, providing point-to-point localizations in more than 50 languages. You will also be offered with some advanced services and mechanisms, such as intranet mapping, and secure HTTP connections for Premier customers.

Amazon Maps API

Amazon Maps APIs are developers best alternative for the creation of Fire phone and Fire tablet applications. The current version of these APIs (2.0) enables support for interactive and 3D maps, enriched with top-quality landmarks, location data, satellite tiles, highlighted areas, and best-of-breed vector mapping. In order to apply for these APIs, submit a direct request to the vendor, or download the Amazon Mobile SDK to ensure that the languages are compatible.

Bing Maps

Microsoft Bing Maps is another extremely popular and powerful mapping tool, still working its way to get a share of Google Maps users. Microsoft is doing a great job following trends and adding innovations, which is why it recently introduced the Streetside city addition with high-resolution aerial images on all Bing maps. Another new feature you should keep n the loop is 3-D city previews.

Carto

Carto was designed for open-source mapping, visualization, and analysis of different maps. Its powerful engine gives developers the possibility to launch geospatial maps and applications for wide web usage. Despite of being on the market for only 5 years, Carto already has a large list of prominent users, among which NASA, National Geographic, Twitter, and The Guardian UK.

Another distinctive advantage of this engine is flexible pricing, as plans go all the way from free and basic to premium and enterprise-friendly.

Carto comes equipped with a rich JavaScript library, and gives developers great API sets to include its engaging geospatial visualizations on their sites and apps. Inside, you will also find a no-brainer drag-and-drop editor to choose the way in which you will use and visualize data. Public information and documentation is available on their website.

DigitalGlobe

DigitalGlobe is a cloud-hosted solution for high-resolution maps that uses API to embed its beautiful and scalable content to any web and mobile application. Developers appreciate the access to terrain, satellite, and vector content, and the possibility to build their own location-based and attractive map applications.

Leaflet

Leaflet is a suite of modern vector layers and maps which you can add to any web service. The very same suite is used to monitor map events alike zoom and pan, and fetches these features automatically for each event. It is best used for large and interactive data sets that you don’t want to load at once. The service offers PostGIS APIs for developers to access its features with REST calls.

Mapbox

Mapbox offers a variety of open-source and free aping features. Its APIs are best suited for creative developers looking to combine multiple databases and file formats. Premade, Android and iOS-compatible maps will be available to embed on any website and to share with wider audiences.

Naver Maps

Naver Maps is a Korean mapping service that offers JavaScript APIs. At the moment, these APIs are in their beta stage of development, which means that geocoding is still not available. Another drawback is that assistance materials are all distributed in Korean, but some of them, as class references, for instance, are fairly easy to understand.

Scribble Maps

Scribble Maps is a creative platform used for sharing and drawing maps. All maps created with it can be shared with external users, and all functionality can be easily embedded on developers’ websites and applications. The platform uses interesting API methods and techniques, as for instance retrieving map images, sharing and displaying apps, and more.

Yahoo! Maps

Despite of Yahoo being a leading search engine for years, its BOSS PlaceFinder flagship API service was launched only in July 2010. These APIs make it possible for programmers to access its geocoding web services and attach them to their applications, as well as to build ‘location-aware’ apps with their names and addresses neatly translated to geographic coordinates.

PlaceFinder is also one of the best alternatives to transform these coordinates back into place names and addresses.

As expected, BOSS PlaceFinder provides users with adequate and well-organized documentation, and makes it incredibly easy to launch its API services. The price will depend on the number of queries you wish to provide on daily basis, keeping in mind that Yahoo will also supply you with some ads to monetize your content.

Yandex

Yandex is Russia’s leading search engine. In a Google-reminiscent manner, this search engine supplies developers with an array of internet products and services, including the possibility to use its functions on their websites, apps, and blogs.

Given that it serves a large market, Yandex offers one of the largest Direct API suites for developers to access its contextual advertising service, and run it on their apps for direct interactions. If you own an advertising agency, for instance, this will make even more sense, as Yandex lets you organize and run large-scale and complex campaigns. For the purpose, it employs a SOAP protocol, and returns responses in JSON format.

Mapwize

Mapwize is an indoor mapping platform with APIs that allow developers to enable similar services on their apps and websites. The platform can serve a multitude of purposes, among which building maps for offices, healthcare facilities, retail stores, and educational institutions. The price you’d pay to get these APIs depends on the size of the building you’re mapping and the number of occupants or visitors that are expected to use it.

US County Boundary

The US County Boundary APIs, as suggested by the name, are used to display the boundaries between all US counties. The RESTful APIs are built using NodeJS language, and work with requests and responses formatted as JSON. The service is offered by an independent developer, and can therefore only be used for non-commercial and non-proprietary purposes.

Carto Data

CartoData’s APIs pair isoline and geocoding services deriving from CARTO Editor. They rely on a PostgreSQL database, and make it possible to geocode data arranged in complete datasets, rows, and manually inputted lists. With authenticated requests, you can also use these APIs to perform programmatic analyses of trade areas (computing isochrones and isodistances).

CartoData’s APIs are built using CARTO SQL APIs, and will thereof provide enough SQL documentation to make debugging errors easier for developers. The tool is an open-source one, and provides unlimited access to scalable maps and dynamic geospatial databases for your websites and application. Its interface is intuitive and predictive, and drafts some of the best location insights worldwide.

TomTom

TomTom is another popular set of online map APIs, and a powerful portal for digital navigation that consists of different web map tile services (WMTS and WMS). For each set of APIs there will be separate training & documentation, as TomTom enables you to transform even high-volume location data into high resolution images, and make it accessible for thousands of users at the same time.

The Online Maps Tiles use grid to divide your maps into separate tiles, and zoom those at even 19 levels to make each feature clearly visible. The reason why TomTom is so powerful is that it was designed primarily for GIS software clients (Quantum GIS an ArcGIS, for instance), which needed an end-to-end WMS API platform that will interact with their entire web mapping service.

The operational infrastructure of these APIs evolved significantly throughout the years, and is now equipped with GetCapabilities functions to retrieve service metadata and create maps within defined set boundaries. WMTS APIs, on the other hand, will work better for conveying metadata map resources.

Want to see more maps APIs?

Read on.

Spatial

Spatial is a REST API suite developers use to access and embed Spatial functions on their new and existent applications. A great example of how Spatial APIs work is embedding ready-to-use maps with points of interests, and retrieving listing points and events on each map. Spatial is also integrated with social networks, and makes it possible to enrich your profiles with beautiful maps.

FINOU

FINOU is a very interactive mapping platform developed in (and for the needs) of the Moroccan market. Its APIs are used to integrate the service on different websites and applications. Developers will obtain tools such as location search, geocoding, map tiles, and more.

AirMap

AirMap consists of tools used to create GIS and a variety of drone management application. Using its APIs, you will have access to notice requirements, advisory information, airspace interaction rules, and much more. Responses are generated in JSON format, for developers who possess the right API key.

An interesting fact is that AirMap sources individual data, and won’t require drone developers and manufacturers to come up with such form their airspace databases. The product belongs to a popular Californian airspace technology company.

ViaMichelin

ViaMichelin’s Web Services & Maps also make their API public and available to developers who use JavaScript. They offer a static library using 4 mapping styles: the native ViaMichelin, hybrid, satellite, and Methods that let users control their layers, polygons, markers, and other elements.

NASA Earth

NASA Earth also provides APIs to make Earth observation data available to all users. The sercie is powered and managed by Google’s Earth Engine, and combines a Landsat 8 image gallery with NASA satellite data being updated in a period of 16 days. Basically, the user can browse through this database for an image of every specific place, taken at a specific day.

Mapme

Mapme API is a RESTful-moderated map builder. At the moment, this service is mounted on Google Maps API, in order to ease the creation, configuration, and distribution of map content. Its custom made apps will include multiple tags, layers, crowdsourcing moderations, privacy settings, activity feeds, mobile compatibility, and many other advanced features.

Detailed documentation and hands-on support for HTTP/HTTPS will also be provided, with responses arriving in JSON formats.

NavVis

If interested to integrate NavVis’s services on your app/website, check out their open APIs. Unfortunately, there is no public info or documentation provided, and you have to create an account in order to obtain a personal key. NavVis can be used both as an indoor navigator and an indoor mapping tool.

One Map

One Map is a Singapore geolocation system that also offers open API to integrate its services on other applications. It works with API key authentication and REST protocols, and invites developers to mash-up its APIs with JavaScript ones, and put in action services such as Agency Data, Address Search, Static Maps, and other advanced mashups.

UKMap

UKMap is the best-known provider of large-scale London maps, which is why many developers want to see its services embedded on their applications. At the moment, UKMap displays more than 100 million info points, among which roads, buildings, pavements, land use and land cover, retail locations, trees, fences, digital terrains, and much more. The service was developed and belongs to The GeoInformation Group, UK.

Mapzen

Mapzen’s Search APIs are devoted to developers who’d like to see this service embedded on their applications. The service will later on become available to visitors and end users, with a free API key that can be obtained by simply contacting the vendor. This makes Mapzen a highly-preferred open-source mapping tool, especially because its search engine operates worldwide, and turns all names and addresses in actual geographic locations (and vice versa).

Pointpin

Pointpin APIs are applied by developers to embed Pointpin services on their sites and applications, and to enable some IP geolocation info for their end users. In order to use these APIs you need a special key, as Pointpin functions as a hosted IP geolocation.

AboutPLACE

AboutPLACE’s RESTful API help developers turn place-based information into an interactive map. Built in Beta, these APIs are available for Miami, Austin, and Boston, and provide all users with unique access keys obtained upon registration.

Developers use these APIs to access local maps, but also metrics, analytics, visualizations, and similar insights on the specified cities. With information like this, they can enhance their own datasets and make results hyper-localized.

If you liked this article with maps APIs, you should check out these articles as well:

Google APIs That You Can Use

12 Useful AngularJS Boilerplates

WordPress boilerplates to use for your themes and plugins

Web APIs for non-programmers

What are the Benefits of APIs?

The post Maps APIs To Use In Your Projects appeared first on Design your way.

http://j.mp/2fAEaBk via Design your way URL : http://j.mp/2arS45r

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jamiekturner · 7 years

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Maps APIs To Use In Your Projects

You’d be surprised how many sites use maps APIs to generate the maps that you see when visiting their sites. It’s always easier to use a maps API.

Digital maps and automated mapping tools are constantly growing in popularity, and this trend doesn’t seem to go down any time soon.

With Google Maps API holding the leadership on this list, companies are competing harshly to become the best-of-breed, leading product in the industry.

This doesn’t come as a surprise, as maps are very informative, useful, interesting, and engaging, and there is no one who’d disapprove of them.

Let’s give a look to several popular maps APIs

Google Maps

Amazon Maps API

Bing Maps

Carto

Another distinctive advantage of this engine is flexible pricing, as plans go all the way from free and basic to premium and enterprise-friendly.

DigitalGlobe

Leaflet

Mapbox

Naver Maps

Scribble Maps

Yahoo! Maps

PlaceFinder is also one of the best alternatives to transform these coordinates back into place names and addresses.

Yandex

Mapwize

US County Boundary

Carto Data

TomTom

Want to see more maps APIs?

Read on.

Spatial

FINOU

AirMap

ViaMichelin

NASA Earth

Mapme

Detailed documentation and hands-on support for HTTP/HTTPS will also be provided, with responses arriving in JSON formats.

NavVis

One Map

UKMap

Mapzen

Pointpin

AboutPLACE

If you liked this article with maps APIs, you should check out these articles as well:

Google APIs That You Can Use

12 Useful AngularJS Boilerplates

WordPress boilerplates to use for your themes and plugins

Web APIs for non-programmers

What are the Benefits of APIs?

The post Maps APIs To Use In Your Projects appeared first on Design your way.

from Web Development & Designing http://www.designyourway.net/blog/resources/maps-apis/

0 notes